George Cross was one of the last of his kind - an old-fashioned hotel bellman who believed in hospitality and first-class service and who stayed with a single employer for a lifetime.

He was a small man with a courtly manner who worked at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco for 55 years. He died June 6 at his home in San Francisco after a long bout with heart disease. He was 83.

Mr. Cross was one of those men who would respond when the hotel desk clerk would ring a small bell and smartly call out: "Front!"

"There would be the bellman, ready to help a guest with luggage and take it to the room," said Howard Mutz, who worked with Mr. Cross for many years. "It was all about service."

Mr. Cross believed in service; he had a way about him, his friends said.

"He was a wonderful man who had an incredible sparkle in his eyes and who loved the St. Francis and all his guests," said Marsha Monro, area director of marketing communications for the Westin St. Francis, as the hotel is now called.

Even as American service standards started to slowly ebb, Mr. Cross remained the epitome of the ubiquitous professional personnel at the hotel's front lobby. "Back when he started, guests had tons of luggage - steamer trunks, hat boxes and many, many bags," Mutz said. "Guests often stopped at the St. Francis on their way to a steamer trip to Asia or Hawaii, so they packed a lot of clothes. Sometimes they had so much the hotel would pick it up at the pier or the railroad station."

That would often be Mr. Cross' task. He also took it upon himself to be available to do special favors for guests such as walk their dog, run errands, be of service.

"He was just one of those generous people. He liked to make people happy," said Mutz.

Mr. Cross was raised in Ashtabula, Ohio, and came to California in 1946 after a stint in the U.S. Navy. He was 21 then and was first employed at the St. Francis hotel as an elevator operator. He was paid $6.15 a day.

In later years, he liked to talk about the hotel's standards and service when he began working there. In those days, the St. Francis provided an inkwell and pen with all guest rooms. All guests were given matchbooks engraved with their names, and orchids were provided for the ladies. All room service arrived on sterling silver trays. The hotel even washed and polished all coins, lest the guests be confronted with unwashed money.

In 1947, Mr. Cross became a bellman, paid 65 cents an hour, not counting whatever tips he might receive. Later, he was promoted to bell captain, supervising others in this service.

Mr. Cross became such an institution that his hotel associates called him King George.

"He was the public face of the St. Francis," said Mutz.

In 2001, the year Mr. Cross retired, The Chronicle called him "an unofficial ambassador for the city."

His wife, Ricky, who also worked for the hotel, died in 1994 after 21 years of marriage.